Infamy
The Shocking Story of the Japanese American Internment in World War II
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4.8 • 6 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER
A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITOR'S CHOICE
Bestselling author Richard Reeves provides an authoritative account of the internment of more than 120,000 Japanese-Americans and Japanese aliens during World War II.
“Highly readable . . . [A] vivid and instructive reminder of what war and fear can do to civilized people.”
—The New York Times Book Review
After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt signed an executive order that forced more than 120,000 Japanese Americans into primitive camps for the rest of war. Their only crime: looking like the enemy.
In Infamy, acclaimed historian Richard Reeves delivers a sweeping narrative of this atrocity. Men we usually consider heroes—FDR, Earl Warren, Edward R. Murrow—were in this case villains. We also learn of internees who joined the military to fight for the country that had imprisoned their families, even as others fought for their rights all the way to the Supreme Court. The heart of the book, however, tells the poignant stories of those who endured years in “war relocation camps,” many of whom suffered this injustice with remarkable grace.
Racism and war hysteria led to one of the darkest episodes in American history. But by recovering the past, Infamy has given voice to those who ultimately helped the nation better understand the true meaning of patriotism.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Reeves (Portrait of Camelot) examines the key causes and dire consequences of the Japanese-American internment in relocation camps during WWII, concentrating on a shortsighted military strategy and anti-Japanese sentiment following the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. The psychological blow delivered by Tojo's warplanes at the principal U.S. Navy base in Hawaii sent the country reeling and put America on a combat footing, both in the Pacific and domestically. In February 1942, F.D.R. issued Executive Order 9066, which declared parts of the American West military zones and opened the way for the removal of American citizens of Japanese descent to government camps. Reeves provides unsparing criticism about the racist whirlwind of anti-Japanese feeling fanned by the Roosevelt White House, Congress, state and local governments, and leading media figures such as William Randolph Hearst, Walter Lippmann, and Edward R. Murrow. The testimonies of the uprooted Japanese-Americans, many of whom remained patriotic even as they were forced into the camps, are heartbreaking, courageous, and ironic in light of those who fought valiantly alongside American soldiers while their relatives remained locked away. Reeves's chilling expos takes a deeper look at one of America's darkest chapters. Photos.
